Santa Clara County hair salons, nail salons and gyms will soon be allowed to reopen under new health order
SANTA CLARA CO., Calif. (KGO) -- Santa Clara County is dropping its shelter-in-place order and instead adopting a new health order that lays the groundwork for reopening hair salons, nail salons and gyms.
The new order will take effect July 13 or when the county receives permission from the state to move forward, whichever date comes later.
RELATED: Gov. Newsom orders indoor restaurants, wineries, movie theaters to close in most of CA
Once the county is allowed to move forward, the following sectors will be given guidance to reopen:
- Personal care services, such as hair salons, nail salons, tattoo and piercing shops, massage parlors, and other body care services
- Small social gatherings, including religious, political and friends/family
- Gyms
- Hotels and motels
VIDEO: Dr. Sara Cody gives update on new health order
Other industries that have already been allowed to reopen, such as public transit and construction, will be receiving new guidance, as well.
Any indoor activities that require you to remove a face covering, such as indoor dining at restaurants and indoor swimming pools, will remain closed indefinitely. Places that encourage large crowds, like theaters, nightclubs, stadiums and arenas, will also stay closed under the new order.
"There are certain activities that just can't be done safely at this time," said Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody.
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"We're at an inflection point," Cody said. "It's crystal clear that COVID-19 will be with us for a long time, so we need to adapt to a new way of being, a new way of living that keeps us all safe and that lets us do some of the things that we miss, cherish and find most meaningful."
VIDEO: Santa Clara County COVID-19 update: New health order will reopen salons; indoor restaurants closed indefinitely
Businesses will only be allowed to reopen if they have 250 square feet of space per worker and 150 square feet per customer.
In May, after Governor Gavin Newsom identified a nail salon as the source of the state's first case of COVID-19 community spread, salon owners weren't sure when they'd get back.
"Every day it's just like, we hear news and we hear what the governor is saying, and it's just like, oh my God, it doesn't look good for us," Blossom Nail Spa owner, Linda Do explained. "So this is amazing news."
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Do said she immediately reached out to her customers, "I just sent out a link to my customers to say please book here. And they just started booking and we're booked up to August or so."
NCFIT founder, Jason Khalipa is working to meet expectation. His gym location in neighboring San Mateo County is finally back in business, but without clear directive from Santa Clara County, he admits it's hard to get ahead.
"It is just a challenging situation for everybody, but it's very difficult as a business owner when we don't know when we can reopen. We also don't know under what lines and restrictions we could open under. It's really difficult, but what we've done is just err on the side of caution," Khalipa explained.
"It's been really challenging for us as a business, and we're excited to reopen. That being said, we need to get our ducks in a row. What we want to do is we want to open up right," he added. "So, we'll probably delay it a week after we're allowed to open, to get our equipment set up to get all the deep cleaning done, to get the paint done to get everything really, really right and tight."
"We've got to really kind of double down and keep reminding ourselves that what we're doing is literally for the lives and well-being of our community and our nation," says Dr. David Relman, a professor and infectious disease expert at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Santa Clara County was the epicenter of the Bay Area's coronavirus outbreak in early March, but strict shelter-in-place measures helped flatten the curve relatively quickly.
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The South Bay county has been one of the most cautious in the Bay Area when it comes to reopening.
"I want to say just one big thank you to all of you who have been sheltering in place, all of you who have been wearing your masks, and to say to everybody else, join us, because this is the only way we're going to fight this, when we do it together," said Board President Cindy Chavez.
Over the past couple of weeks, the county has seen a summer surge in new cases and hospitalizations, much like the rest of the state. It has landed Santa Clara County on the state's watch list of concerning COVID-19 trends.
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